The Applicants

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This article about The Applicants attempts to introduce, more or less, the forty people who applied for the three open fellowship positions at the beginning of Season 4. At the beginning of the "competition" there were forty doctors in the hunt, which by the end of the episode The Right Stuff had been narrowed down to ten. By the start of Guardian Angels it had been narrowed down to seven, Dr. Henry Dobson whom House refers to as "Ridiculously Old Fraud" was let go at the end of that episode. The field was further narrowed to five at the end of Whatever It Takes, but House had offered Dr. Samira Terzi a job and, despite knowing about House's treatment of his previous team, she showed up at Princeton-Plainsboro to take him up on it.

Part of the problem in developing this article is that, from the beginning, the applicants were referred to by number, and even by the episode 97 Seconds, House had not bothered to learn anyone's name. He consistently refers to them by titles such as "Unloved Foster Kid" and "Manipulative Bitch". This article relies heavily on the character names given by the Internet Movie Data Base. However, Amber and Cole identified themselves by name to other characters in the episode Guardian Angels. Taub, Brennan and Kutner were identified by name in Mirror Mirror. Number 13 was not referred to by name until the episode House's Head, when Cuddy was trying to get her to stop House from performing a dangerous procedure.

In Mirror Mirror, the applicants (except for Cole) had to meet with a patient who mirrored the personality of the person he was with at the time, giving us insights into their personalities.

Contents

Chris Taub - (played by actor Peter Jacobson). Taub, aka Number 39 is older than most of the other applicants (excluding at least Henry) and is a qualified plastic surgeon. He most likely earned his place among the finalists by suggesting breast enhancement surgery to hide a biopsyscar. When the mirror patient was with him, he started talking about his fantasies about Amber, even though Taub is married.

Lawrence Kutner - (played by actor Kal Penn). Kutner, aka Number 6 (sometimes Number 9 when House fires Number 6) is a young south Asian doctor, a specialist in Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. In The Right Stuff, he saved the patient's life by using a defibrillator in an oxygen-rich environment, but set off the sprinklers in the process. In Mirror Mirror, he once again used a defibrillator to disastrous effect - he saved the patient, but the patient's wet skin conducted the charge to Kutner and knocked him cold. Shortly after he was fired as Number 6, he earned his place as Number 9 (flipping his number upside down, in an attempt to avoid being fired) among the finalists by suggesting that House give a patient alcohol to stress her liver when an invasive test was impossible. The mirror patient started acting like he was a masochist and hated being identical to other people when he was around Kutner.

Number 13 - (played by actress Olivia Wilde). Thirteen is a mysterious doctor qualified as an internist, who guessed that the patient had threadworms from his companion animal. She was right, but failed to ensure that the patient took his medication for it. As such, the rest of the applicants and House believed that the patient's failure to improve meant he didn't have threadworms. He eventually died from the condition. Despite her mistake and her failure to be honest about not watching the patient take his medication, House did not fire her. The mirror patient was scared when he was around Number 13. Her name was eventually revealed in the Season 4 finale as Remi Hadley.

Amber Volakis - (played by actress Anne Dudek). Amber, aka Number 24 is quite clearly the most ambitious and manipulative of the applicants, she is an interventional radiologist. She managed to convince nine other applicants to quit by pretending to quit herself, but this did not work the second time. Her disregard for rules, inability to work in a team along with the assumption of always focusing on being right rather than the patient's health pretty much brands her as a female version of House. She earned her place in the final six by getting the diagnosis in Guardian Angels. The mirror patient started acting like he always had to be right about everything when he was around Amber. Eventually, this constant desire to win and be right convinced House that Amber would not be a good fit. House hates losing, but even he realized results weren't everything and that to work for him, Amber would have to be able to accept losing. He hoped firing her would teach her how to do that.

Jeffrey Cole - (played by actor Edi Gathegi). Cole, aka Number 18 is the only African-American in the group. He graduated from Brigham Young university and is a devout Mormon, qualified as a medical geneticist, although he does not wear his religion on his sleeve, even agreeing to drink alcohol when it was necessary for a patient's well being. House is often on his case for holding religious beliefs, but so far the only way Cole has retaliated is by calling House out on being an atheist who quotes scripture. House intentionally baited Cole about his religion in Guardian Angels as part of a bet with Cameron, and kept him on even after Cole punched him. Cole is a single father. House fired Cole after You Don't Want To Know for making a deal with Cuddy in order to try to save his job.

Travis Brennan - (played by actor Andy Comeau). Brennan, aka Number 37, an epidemiologist who previously worked in third world countries as part of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), but is now engaged and plans on settling down. However, it is clear that his real ambition is to go back to the third world, even though he can't. He was going to quit, but his fiancée made him stay. The mirror patient started acting like he didn't want to work in a hospital when he was around Brennan. Brennan seemed to be on the fast track in Whatever It Takes when he came up with an unlikely diagnosis of polio and an even more unlikely cure. However, when Foreman's check of the test results showed the patient never had polio, House correctly guessed that Brennan had deliberately poisoned a patient to make it look like she had polio so he could convince people that there was a cure they should study. House told Brennan to quit, but after he left made sure the police would be called to arrest him.

Henry Dobson - (played by actor Carmen Argenziano). Henry, aka Number 26 was by far the oldest applicant - he's in his sixties. House figured out that Henry had never actually graduated medical school because he was avoiding doing procedures on patients. However, he spent most of his life working at Columbia University's medical school and is the applicant who appears to have the broadest medical knowledge. House has agreed to keep Henry on as a medical assistant if he survives the competition. As House put it, "actually it is [your dream job], it's just not your dream title." However, House fired Henry after the episode Guardian Angels because all Henry brought to the equation was pretty much the same medical knowledge House already had and House didn't need someone who just echoed his thoughts.

Jodi Desai - (played by actress Meera Simhan). Jody, aka Number 32 is a south Asian woman and one-time veterinarian. She was last seen in 97 Seconds as part of the woman's team.

The Twins - (played by actresses Melinda Dahl and Caitlin Dahl). The Twins, aka Numbers 15A and 15B are a pair of attractive female doctors who have developed the habit of discussing a differential diagnosis between them while the rest of the applicants listen. House is obviously having fantasies about them. In The Right Stuff, they suggested Lupus as the diagnosis. They were last seen in 97 Seconds as part of the woman's team.

All of these applicants were fired (or quit) by the end of The Right Stuff.

Dr. Ashka (Number 2) - (played by actress Heather Fox). Dr. Ashka was a foreign trained doctor who had to repeat medical school when the New Jersey medical board refused to recognize her degree. She obtained her American degree in just two years. House fired her because she didn't take any risks.

Dr. Mason (Number 10) - (played by actor Jonathan Sadowski)). Dr. Mason was fired for revealing the name of the patient to Dr. Cuddy after he found it out after visiting her apartment.

Number 19 - (played by actress Jaimarie Bjorge). Number 19 was a very attractive doctor, and was nearly fired as a result of House's decision to fire the whole of Row D. Her looks encouraged House to change his mind and fire Row C instead. She was fired at the end of the episode as one of the numbers House rattled off.

Number 23 - (played by actress Kathryn Adams). Number 23 was the first to be fired, after misidentifying actor Buddy Ebsen as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. She was also the doctor in Alone who suggested to House that the patient had crush syndrome, and the medical student in Human Error who suggested the patient had botulism.

House force Dr. Brennan (Number 37) to quit for poisoning a patient to make it look like she had polio so he could convince people that there was a cure they should study.

Dr. Samira Terzi (Unnumbered) joins as an applicant at the end of the episode.

4x7 (Starts 5, ends 5 [Of the original applicants])

House fires Dr. Samira Terzi (Unnumbered) for prejudged her unfairly.

4x8 (Starts 5, ends 4)

House fires Dr. Cole for making a deal with Cuddy.

4x9 (Starts 4, ends 3)

House fires Dr. Volakis (Cutthroat Bitch) due to her inability to lose.

Dr. Volakis is also the final applicant to be eliminated.

Possibly Goof: In the House's car cleaning incident, numbers 1 and 40 are identifiable. If the twins are the Numbers 15A and 15B it brings that there could be 41 applicants beside 40. In that case, the firing of the Row D implies 11 fired people to bring the numbers okay.